Kicking And Screaming

I am slowly being dragged into the 21st century. Kicking and screaming.

You see, I'm not up on all of the latest consumer gadgets.

Now you may be thinking: "Didn't I read somewhere on this blog that this guy is an electrical engineer? Wouldn't an electical engineer ALWAYS be first in line for any new gadget that hits the market? Isn't that the basic nature of an engineer?"

Eau Contrare mis amigos! (Checkit. French and Spanish in the same sentence.)

I can't really say much about work, but let me say this. When you work on projects, whose end result is often an electronic device that has never before existed in the world, high def TV and iPods are like going to Baskin Robbins and ordering a single scoop of vanilla. In a cup. (Hand over mouth politely, while I yawn.) Or worse yet, in one of those nasty tasting 'regular' cones, instead of in a yummy waffle cone.

Ok, so here's the deal.

I like gadgets and stuff, I just like knowing how they work as much as using them. ( Take for instance my new Nikon digital slr; I'm trying to research EXACTLY what happens inside this machine when I push the shutter release button.)

And music? My main source of music injections is my trusty Sony portable CD player. The rest of the world has long since gone to iPods and their knockoffs. Me? My CD player is barely a year old. That's right. When I needed a new one, did I go ahead and get an iPod? Nope. I just bought a new CD player, although it is the snazzy one that also plays mp3s. For me that's a major upgrade.

But Lovely Wife? Dude, she's a bigger gadget freak than I could ever aspire to be. If only I could get her to read the instructions on stuff, I'd be a happy man. I like reading the manual. Is that so wrong?

She's so bad at wanting the newest thing that it spills over into other areas of our lives. When we are almost out of toothpase, and we go ahead and buy the new tube? She immediately starts on the new tube, leaving me to mop up the dregs in the old tube. And in almost 22 years of marriage, I don't ever remember being the first person to dip my knife into the perfect, smooth surface of a new jar of peanut butter, although I have watched, longingly, while she does. I'm over there scraping out the last of the peanut butter from the old jar.

How do you think she is with electronics?

You have three guesses. The first two, of course, don't count.

She bought an iPod Nano last week. That iPod Shuffle she's had for a while just had all the 'new' worn slap-dab off of it. It was gettin' to be time for something new! (Slap-dab is another time honored southern phrase. It means the same thing as 'plumb', as in "…all the 'new' got worn plumb off of it", or, "I plumb forgot to mow the yard.")

So like the dregs of the toothpaste, or the last of the peanut butter, I inherit the iPod Shuffle, complete with hot (and I mean HOT) pink protective cover.

But hey, that's cool with me. I have never used iTunes, and I've not yet started to learn how the shuffle works but I'm already looking forward to learning about it and using it. It's so little and cute. Plus that hot pink protective case will make all my dweeb/engineer coworkers seethe with envy. (Yeah, sure, right.) And being as big as I am almost guarantees that nobody will pick on me about it either. In fact, I'm looking forward to showing it off, pink case and all.

[Aside: You have never seen anything as unique as showing a group of engineers a 'new' toy. Instead of the normal "Hey man, that's cool! I'm getting one just like that pretty soon.", you get mostly furrowed brows and after everyone looks it over really good, you then get peppered with questions about how it works, have you taken it apart yet, and stuff like that. A new gadget is a SERIOUS thing. And showing it to the group is a solemn occasion.]

I don't reckon Lovely Wife has an instruction manual for it, though I can probably look it up on the Apple web site. I won't even bother to ask. That would probably earn me 'the look'.

Time for me to start researching iPod Shuffle. About two years later than the rest of the world.

I'll just continue to work out my desire to be 'cutting edge' at work.

The tweny first century might not be such a bad place after all.

Plus that hot pink case will make a nice fashion statement with the junk I wear to work with all of my work outfits. ;)